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NFC for payments: Meh. NFC for a keyboard: Cool!

Near-field communications for mobile payments still hasn’t made much headway as most consumers and retailers haven’t yet transitioned to wireless payments. That doesn’t mean NFC is a dead technology however. We’ve already seen Bluetooth headphones that pair up by tapping them to an NFC-enabled smartphone. Now the world’s first NFC mobile keyboard is here.

Elecom is showing off the device, says Akihabara News, which folds up and comes with a carry case. When unfolded, an NFC-equipped phone fits in the middle of the split keys and communicates wirelessly with the keys at a frequency of 13.56MHz. There’s no Bluetooth or other wireless technology used here; NFC is used to initiate the connection and to transfer the keystroke data.

Since NFC is a short-range, low-power wireless technology, the keyboard only works when a phone is within 10 millimeters of it. Elecom says the keyboard battery should last six months and…